Good morning. Here’s your Situational Awareness for Friday, 09 September 2022.
DROUGHT CONDITIONS TO WORSEN AS LA NIÑA FORECAST FOR A THREE-PEAT: Weather forecasters are predicting a third season of La Niña weather conditions, which are to blame for drought in the Western hemisphere.
ALLIES JOIN INDO-PACIFIC ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK MEETING: Allies gathered at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Economic Framework meeting this week to discuss how to counter the rise of Chinese economic power. Officials from the United States and 13 other countries joined to discuss the “four pillars” of the framework: trade, green energy, supply chains, and taxes. They also discussed the creation of an emergency semiconductor chip stockpile and a chip-sharing agreement to reduce reliance on China.
AIRFORCE: C-130’s CLEARED FOR WATER LANDINGS: US Airforce Special Operations Command announced it will deploy amphibious landing capabilities for the MC-130J in 2023. Officials confirmed the final design for the amphibious landing system had been approved and will eventually be made available to the full fleet of C-130 aircraft for use in the Indo-Pacific theater.
BIDEN ADMIN APPROVES $450 MILLION F-16 PACKAGE TO PAKISTAN: The Biden administration approved a $450 million F-16 fighter sustainment package for Pakistan this week. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of the sale on Wednesday. The security assistance package will provide sustainment and upgrade of Pakistan’s existing fleet of F-16 fighters. The Trump administration had previously canceled the security assistance deal with Pakistan over Islamabad’s continued support of Islamic extremist groups in Afghanistan.
BELARUS LAUNCHES SNAP EXERCISES ON POLISH BORDER: Officials from the Belarusian Ministry of Defense announced the commencement of week-long military exercises near the city of Brest on the Polish border. The exercises are designed to provide troops with experience “liberating territory temporarily seized by the enemy” and regaining control over border regions. Belarusian officials said similar exercises are also underway in Minsk and near the Russian border, and that prior notice of the exercises was not needed as the scale fell below OSCE guidelines for notification.
In today’s Early Warning, Mike takes a deeper look at the next financial crisis and issues a recommendation to prepare, plus the team reports on a number of domestic intelligence issues. Subscribe to Forward Observer’s Early Warning report to unlock analyst comments for today’s DailySA, and enjoy access to the rest of the full report: https://forwardobserver.com/subscribe